Another Intamin Success Story

I got it after I clicked. I thought that it was going to be some kind of controversial topic at first.

I was glad it was just a removal. I was expecting to see something about an early season accident to something. I'm so glad it wasn't that!

G:TSTCRFKAPP

The "C" hung me up for a second then remembered it's "Chutes" not "Shoots." If not for my 4 year old son's board games, I might not have figured it out at all!

I had a feeling it would be a bad news bit for Intamin, because like Raven-Phile I was expecting an accident.

In light of this "success story," Falcon's Fury at BGT has had its opening date pushed back from May 1 due to "construction issues." It appears to be a problem with the seat rotation mechanism. Yay Intamin...

Lord Gonchar said:

LostKause said:

I love how misleading the topic title is. The first time I read it, I was very confused.

Is was meant to be funny. Irony? Sarcasm? My own dry sense of wit?

You forgot to use an eye-rolling emoticon...

I must admit, this ride was really freaky when I rode it. The tower was terrifying. However, it was an odd ride for HW... The placement, the lack of any real "theme" and downtime. No surprise to see it go.

I am counting the days until Shoot The Rapids has the same fate.

I'm probably most sad that this was one of Will Koch's last projects. No one was likely more disappointed than him with its performance.

What really amazes me is that Intamin is still able to sell anything in this country, considering the amount of problems they've had with their products.

Last year I made my first HW visit, and it was closed. meh...guess I ain't surprised. Just wish I would have ridden it at some point.

^^ But they've also had tremendous success with many of their coasters and have many of the top spots in rankings around the world. Their ideas are often interesting and unique. I'm always rooting (routing? Always forget that) for them to figure things out or to at least start taking on projects that are consistent with past achievements...they just can't seem to do that like some coaster/ride firms. They've made brilliant rides, but they can't seem to understand that maybe they should stick to those types of rides and fix issues with restraints, cables, etc before contracting on rides that they're just not capable of at this time. I understand a company needs to develop, but I again use B&M as an example. Their production of "ground-breaking" thrill rides hasn't been exactly blow-your-mind new tech all the time, but when they DO produce something new, they've got it either nearly all or totally all figured it out. They don't write checks their butts can't cash, and when there is a problem,they fix it immediately (Gatekeeper restraints tightening versus similar Banshee restraints not doing so is a great example).

It is a tough call. When Intamin gets it right, nobody comes close. However, it does get frustrating to see so many issues with so many of their attractions. It seems like nearly every major coaster they install requires some sort of modification along the way and their water rides aren't much better. I'm not sure what it's going to take to get them to be a bit more on the ball with their engineering.

It's going to take reducing complexity. Seriously, that's what their problem is. How do you screw up a boat ride, a problem that Arrow solved 40 years ago? You have to ask yourself at every step of the way, how do I reduce the number of parts without sacrificing safety or quality?

Think about his, for example, with anti-rollbacks. B&M rides still use good old-fashioned dogs. They improved them by putting nylon tips on them, and in the case of recent rides, somewhat isolating steel "teeth" on some kind of dampening system. What does Intamin do? They use some kind of wheel that slips when wet but otherwise induces a current to magnetically lift the things up (at least, that's how I understand it works). More parts, and they're somewhat failure prone (from a lifting standpoint, not necessarily a safety standpoint).

Exactly, they have the propensity of trying to reinvent the wheel when it's not necessary to do so. It appears that they use technology because it's new or never been done before. Using technology for technology's sake isn't always the best use of it.

sirloindude said:

When Intamin gets it right, nobody comes out of the restraints

FTFY *winkyface*

Could this "reinvent the wheel" thing have anything to do with some technology being patented? Could they be trying to get out of paying for the rights to use an idea that someone else already has the right to?

Just asking. I don't know much about the subject of patents.

What they try to do is come up with a proprietary way of doing something that has been done a certain way, with no patents involved for over a century. It's not a matter of them trying to avoid a patent, they are looking to license their technology to do something that has been done in the past without the benefit of patent protection. Shoot the Rapids is an excellent example. Flume, chute and channel rides are among the oldest technologies in the amusement business. Quite literally it's not rocket science, but Intamin is trying to make it that.

Jeff and Dutchman are right on. Having worked on machinery all my life, it seems European companies like to stuff as much "over engineering" as possible into any equipment. Whether it be coasters, lathes, horizontal mills, etc....just a pain in the arch all around compared to their American counterparts. B&M on the other hand is soooo much different. Simple, low-maintenance, built like a brick outhouse. I wish i could recall what the Dominator maintenance budget was at SFWoA/GLP. I recall it being peanuts compared to the $450,000+ we spent on X-Flight each year.

BTW if you know any ride mechanics, ask them if they have ever seen any email correspondence from Sandor Kernacs of Intamin. Just....wow...

For Intamin (keeping this short): Stop fixing stuff that ain't broke!

Oh, I have some Sandor email I could show you. What a dick.

Ah, you know of what i speak Jeff! LOL!